The Plan B method is all about combining sprints to evolve your brand quickly in the areas that matter most right now. Most of our Plan B conversations start with “We want to do more digital marketing but…” and that’s the real key problem to solve with these brand strategy sprints. It’s not good ramping up your ad spend if your brand isn’t compelling, consistent, and authentic. So here are some of the biggest “buts” that our Plan B Strategy Sprints can help solve.
We don’t stand out from our competitors.
This is particularly difficult in highly saturated B2B markets such as recruitment. But even in markets where the services are mostly homogenous, there are still opportunities to differentiate. It’s all about focusing on what makes you, you. What is it about your approach, processes, culture, purpose that defines your business? These can then be articulated through your brand. Even by tweaking the tone and language you use, we can help differentiate you. If you operate in a very corporate environment for example, perhaps having a more informal tone of voice can help you stand out. Our strategy sprints can craft and tweak your proposition, messaging and tone of voice to create something that stands out from your close competitors.
Our communications aren’t engaging enough for our audiences.
All your communications should be using your brand as a starting point, to hammer home the established key selling messages consistently. So if your brand isn’t compelling, then your communications aren’t going to be either. Your brand needs to tap into something beyond just what it is you offer. An example is a student utilities services and supplier brand I worked with. At the product and service level they offered students a much simpler and easier way to do bills in shared households. But to be more engaging, their brand and its communications have to go beyond that, what is the impact of what they do. Their communications spoke about saving housemate relationships, they focused on other things students could be doing now they weren’t spending time worrying about bills. Our strategy sprints can work with you to figure out what the emotional drivers for your product and service are, and build them into your brand.
We don’t feel our brand represents who we really are.
This is very common for businesses that have experienced recent patches of growth. Often they have built their brand more by accident than design, and it tends have been developed either once in a rush a very long time ago, or in several disconnected stages. Typically the brand will be a “copy, paste and tweak” of competitor brands. Personality matters, it makes a big difference. Internally your staff are going to be much more motivated and deliver better work and service if they feel brought-in to the brand. Consumers want to buy from brands they feel they can identity with and relate to, while businesses base their decisions on the relationships they can build. Our strategy sprints can hone in on your values, your story, and your personality and bring them to life through your brand.
If you’ve got a “but” that’s preventing your lead generation campaigns from being effective then check out our brand strategy sprints here — https://planb.thisisorb.com/
